No overrides of governor's budget vetoes, House Democrats say

The House majority caucus agreed not to override any of the governor’s 45 line-item vetoes in the budget, House Speaker Greg Stumbo said.

Stumbo said Beshear made a “very good case” each of the vetoes during a closed-door caucus meeting Thursday afternoon. House Democrats then voted to let those vetoes stand.

Stumbo, an ally of Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, said he wasn’t thrilled with the governor’s decsion to move the business one-stop portal website from the Secretary of State’s oversight. But he said he understood the reason and Beshear persuaded enough of the House Democrats it was the right move.

The one-stop portal is aimed at making it easier for businesses to deal with the state government with filing registration papers and paying taxes.

Beshear said other state agencies interact with businesses, such as the finance and administration cabinet that includes the agency that collects business taxes. So Beshear argued that control should be shared by the Secretary of State and the finance cabinet secretary. Funding for the portal site will remain in the secretary of state’s budget.

Stumbo told reporters he’d like to see how well that goes over the next six to nine months and potentially revisit the issue in the next session.

Most of the governor’s other vetoes took out language that the governor said would restrict his ability to save money, such as mandating that he save $40 million each of the next two years in efficiencies.

Beshear told Pure Politics his administration still will save at least $80 million — if not as much as $120 million to keep the budget balanced but that he wanted to have as much flexibility as possible to do it.

Stumbo said he sent a message to the Senate informing Senate Republican leaders that the House won’t vote to override any of the governor’s vetoes.